I call bullshit on the lawless Trump regime’s attacts on free speech. Its latest moves are blatantly unconstitutional and in violation of the First Amendment.
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled again and again that the U.S. government CANNOT condition federal funding on political speech.
This clearly means Trump’s policy of suspending federal funding for Universities that allow pro Palestine demonstrations is a blatant violation of the First Amendment.
Der fuhrer Trump is now taking this assault of free speech farther and actively arresting American residents for protesting Zionist Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine and its brutal genocidal mass murder of its people.
The Trump regime has now used ICE to arrest Mahmoud Khalil, an American resident with a green card, married to an American citizen, because he had led protests against the US backed, ongoing genocide in Gaza.
On Truth Social Trump said:
“Following my previously signed Executive Orders, ICE proudly apprehended and detained Mahmoud Khalil, a Radical Foreign pro Hamas Student on the campus of Columbia University. This is the first arrest of many to come. We know there are more students at Columbia and other Universities across the Country who have engaged in pro terrorist, anti Semitic, anti American activity, and the Trump Administration will not tolerate it. Many are not students, they are paid agitators. We will find, apprehend, and deport these terrorist sympathizers from our country — never to return again. If you support terrorism, including the slaughtering of innocent men, women, and children, your presence is contrary to our national and foreign policy interests, and you are not welcome here. We expect every one of America’s Colleges and Universities to comply.”
Contrary to Trump’s claims, they have zero evidence that Khalil has any connection to Hamas whatsoever. As the New York Times noted:
“Mr. Rubio (Secretary of State Marco Rubio) reposted a Homeland Security Department statement that accused Mr. Khalil of having “led activities aligned to Hamas.” But officials have not accused him of having any contact with the terrorist group, taking direction from it or providing material support to it.”
There is zero evidence Khalil has engaged in any criminal activity. In a separate article, The New York Times reported :
“Khalil, who grew up in a Palestinian refugee camp in Syria, hasn’t been charged with any crime. A dossier on him compiled by Canary Mission, a right wing group that tracks anti Zionist campus activists, includes no examples of threatening or violent speech, just demands for divestment from Israel.”
In other words, Mahmoud Khalil is a legal American resident who has no connection to Hamas or been accused of any crime and is being arrested and threatened with deportation solely over his protest against America’s funding of a FOREIGN STATE which has carried out a mass murder campaign that virtually every credible human rights organization has called a genocide.
Brian Hauss, a lawyer from the ACLU, called this crackdown “one of the biggest threats, if not the biggest threats to First Amendment freedoms in 50 years” and “a direct attempt to punish speech because of the viewpoint it espouses”
While Trump was running for president, he received 100 million dollars from the pro Israel mega donor Miriam Adelson. Because of this, he is effectively carrying out Israel’s agenda as president, traitorously acting against US interests as a bought and paid for foreign agent.
The arrest of Mahmoud Khalil is clearly a threat to free speech, and is meant to create a chilling effect against anyone else who wants to protest Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
In February Vice President J.D. Vance gave a speech at the Munich Security Conference where he criticized Europe for their authoritarian attack on free speech.
Vance brought up many real issues such as the law fare campaign in Germany against playwright CJ Hopkins for his opposition to COVID lock downs and the judicial coup in Romania against the presidential candidate Calin Georgescu for his opposition to NATO and the Ukraine war.
With the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, the Trump administration is now copying a European law fare campaign against pro Palestine speech.
The Trump regime claims again and again that it supports free speech, but in reality, it only supports it for views it approves of.
One can either support the Trump regime crackdown on pro Palestine speech or support Free Speech, but cannot support both.
Written by Larry C. Johnson.
